BUB: Terrorism

A quick update on several terrorism-related news stories.

Several US representatives aren't very happy with the US report on the Ft Hood shooter.

Lawmakers criticized Wednesday an internal Pentagon review into the deadly Fort Hood shooting for failing to discuss why the military promoted the suspect despite concerns over his behavior.
Military and intelligence officials have come under fire for missing warning signs about US Army Major Nidal Hasan, a psychiatrist charged with turning his guns on fellow soldiers, killing 13 people and wounding 43 others during the November 5 attack at the military base in Texas.
Hasan is being investigated for links to Islamic extremism, including his contacts with Anwar al-Awlaqi, a US-born radical cleric now in Yemen who blessed the killing spree afterwards.
But details about Hasan's personnel records located in a partially redacted annex of the two-month Pentagon inquiry have been restricted from the public and reserved for official use only.
Republican Representative Mike Coffman told leaders of the review -- former chief of naval operations Vernon Clark and former army secretary Togo West -- that the omission was "offensive" and "politically embarrassing."

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Some good news, though, as it seems there are actually ways to turn terrorists from violence. Besides killing them, that is.

Since 2001, al-Qaida is believed to have dispatched three men to blow up American airliners. Two of them tried but failed to set off explosions, and the third backed out of his assignment.
What made him different? A new study suggests family ties may have played an important role.
The report to be released this week by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy looked at dozens of terrorists in trying to figure out what motivates terror dropouts and how others might be influenced to turn their backs on violent operations.

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And since 2001, the conviction rate on terrorism cases is very high. Like, 90% high. Wow.

The United States has won convictions in 89 percent of cases involving terrorism charges brought since the September 11, 2001 attacks, a study by New York University's Center on Law and Security found on Wednesday.

By: Brant